Data are fish species occurrences in surveys made by backpack electrofishing and seining in shoal habitats in the Etowah River downstream from Allatoona Dam (n=10 surveys in 2010 and n=5 surveys in 2016; 20 taxa total) and in the Coosawattee River downstream from Carters Dam and re-regulation dam (n=11 surveys in 2010; 32 taxa total), Georgia, USA. Data for the Etowah River include counts of individuals for each species captured; data for the Coosawattee River are observed or not observed for each species in the data set.